User talk:Derfb
March 2009
[edit]
Welcome to Wikipedia, and thank you for your contributions. One of the core policies of Wikipedia is that articles should always be written from a neutral point of view. A contribution you made to Jerusalem Light Rail appears to carry a non-neutral point of view, and your edit may have been changed or reverted to correct the problem. Please remember to observe our core policies. Thank you. -- Ynhockey (Talk) 11:10, 5 March 2009 (UTC)
- Hi Derfb! Thank you for the message. Please note that this is not the first time that this debate came up, in fact, it has come up dozens if not hundreds of times on Wikipedia. There was no clear consensus on the matter, but generally we use the term 'neighborhood' (you will notice that this is used in most articles on the subject) because, as you said yourself, it is more neutral and does not imply whether the annexation is legal or not ('settlement' implies that it's illegal, which is disputed).
- Furthermore, there seem to be three misconceptions here which are leading to the misunderstanding:
- The use of primary vs. secondary sources: On Wikipedia, secondary sources are always preferred to primary sources. This is because primary sources are usually non-neutral and may have a conflict of interest. Media sources might not be the best secondary sources, but they are still better than primary sources where books and such on the subject are not available.
- Citation of the UN as an authority: Actually the UN is an involved entity taking an active part in the conflict, and it is not considered to be a neutral body or an authority on these matters. The UN has its own political agenda, which should not be forced on Wikipedia.
- The use of sources to determine terminology: Some Wikipedians believe that when many sources use a certain term over another, this automatically makes it a more suitable term for Wikipedia. This is not true and the term that should be used (for anything) is the most neutral term that implies the least. This, of course, within reason, because the term still has to be recognized by English-speakers worldwide. However, in our case this is not a problem because both 'settlement' and 'neighborhood' are widely-used in English.
- Cheers, —Ynhockey (Talk) 12:13, 6 March 2009 (UTC)